Chapter Summaries

Yang Yunzhi convened a remote meeting with Hina, Robin, and Bezos to discuss establishing a base on Ghost Mulberry Island. After learning the Oniki Clan was stronger than expected, he proposed exploiting its succession struggle to weaken it and recruit an ally from within.

• Yang Yunzhi and Little Bean prepared the remote meeting and shared a report proposing Ghost Mulberry Island as an experimental base.
• Yang Yunzhi began the meeting by assigning the attendees organizational code names and asking them to discuss the report.
• Bezos revealed that the Oniki Clan had more than three hundred armed personnel, including powerful Generals and Pillars, while Hina said defeating it would require a major Marine force.
• Yang Yunzhi identified the clan's succession dispute as a vulnerability and directed Bezos to expand intelligence gathering, promised technical support and funding, and planned to intensify conflict among the factions.
• Yang Yunzhi proposed recruiting an Oniki Clan insider as a partner who supported their ideals, and Robin and the others listened to his plan.

Yang Yunzhi approved the DD Organization’s plan to seize Ghost Mulberry Island and explained how the group would conceal its base. As its members began preparing, Robin reflected on the possibility that Yang Yunzhi could change the world.

• Robin asked how the group would keep the World Government from discovering its base, and Yang Yunzhi proposed operating under the DD Party name and isolating information around remote Ghost Mulberry Island.
• Yang Yunzhi approved the operation, assigned intelligence work to Eyes and Ears and Historian, and asked Hina about her recruits’ readiness.
• Back at Marine Base 36, Hina questioned Yang Yunzhi about Rebecca and Little Bean, and he promised to build nearby intelligence points soon.
• Robin reviewed the meeting records under the alias Rebecca and considered whether Yang Yunzhi’s practical reform plans could change the world.
• Bezos assigned tasks in the West Blue, Ajilu finished training on Ghost Mulberry Island, and Yang Yunzhi spent the night with Hina as preparations for the operation continued.

Yang Yunzhi began building an intelligence network across the islands under Base 36 by recruiting locals with useful knowledge and connecting them through DD technology. After eighteen days, he had established a network of informants, though his limited funds constrained their pay.

• Yang Yunzhi recruited Afeng, Glazed Town’s former sailor and village chief, to report on visitors, ships, and activity at sea in exchange for monthly pay and a communication interface.
• Yang Yunzhi traveled across the nine islands under Base 36’s jurisdiction over the next eighteen days to recruit more informants.
• At Gem Country’s largest dock, Yang Yunzhi hired One-Eyed Old Joe for his memory of ships, cargoes, and owners.
• Yang Yunzhi recruited newspaper seller Little Curly to track news and the people buying specific newspaper sections.
• Yang Yunzhi recruited Mute Uncle, whose sharp hearing and observations had revealed a planned raid, and connected him to DD Chat.
• Yang Yunzhi modeled his network partly on Bezos’s use of orphans, beggars, and newspaper sellers, adding dockworkers while noting he had little money to pay them.

Yang Yunzhi built an intelligence network across nine islands and used its reports to identify the Blood Knife Pirates scouting Red Maple Island, prompting him to prepare the Navy for a clash. A detailed report from Bezos also drew Yang Yunzhi’s attention to Lina, as a covert campaign against Ghost Mulberry Island began to take shape.

• Yang Yunzhi recruited village chiefs, watchmen, and other locals as informants, completing a network of thirty-seven people across nine islands.
• An informant reported a fast black-sailed ship near Red Maple Island, and Yang Yunzhi matched it to Blood Knife Henry’s pirate crew using Navy bounty records.
• After another informant reported that armed strangers were asking about freshwater sources, Yang Yunzhi identified the pirates’ presence as confirmed and ordered Hina to convene an emergency combat meeting while Red Maple Island’s informants observed in silence.
• On Ghost Mulberry Island, Bezos sent an encrypted report detailing the Oniki Clan and its members, including Lina.
• Yang Yunzhi read Bezos’s report on Glass Island and studied Lina’s portrait as the coming naval clash and covert campaign converged.

Yang Yunzhi presented Hina with detailed intelligence on the Blood Knife Pirates and called a combat conference to plan an attack. He outlined a force of 280 Marines against the pirates, setting the goal of wiping them out while keeping casualties in the single digits.

• Yang Yunzhi gave Hina intelligence describing the Blood Knife Pirates, their island camp, individual members, weapons, habits, and supplies.
• Yang Yunzhi proposed holding a combat conference, and Hina agreed.
• Yang Yunzhi displayed a holographic map and pirate profiles to forty officers and leaders at Base 36.
• Yang Yunzhi announced that two companies, totaling 280 Marines, would confront the 79 pirates.
• Yang Yunzhi rejected the idea of a fair fight and stated that the Marines should destroy the pirates while keeping casualties in the single digits.

Yang Yunzhi briefed the officers on a coordinated nighttime raid designed to defeat the pirates with minimal casualties and introduced a secret real-time Combat Command System. He left Hina in command at the base and ordered her to stay out of the battle unless Blood Blade proved impossible to defeat with gunfire.

• Yang Yunzhi showed the fleet's detailed plan to silently surround the pirate camp, seize the ships, and attack before dawn.
• Drake and the other company commanders were shocked by the plan's departure from traditional naval combat, and Yang Yunzhi explained that its goal was zero deaths and minimal casualties.
• Yang Yunzhi linked the officers to the Combat Command System and warned them to keep it secret, while the commanders accepted the plan rather than risk a bloody conventional fight.
• Yang Yunzhi dismissed the officers and told Hina to remain behind and command instead of joining the raid, giving the soldiers a chance to prove their fighting strength.

Yang Yunzhi’s forces launched a night assault on Henry and Good’s pirate camp, using coordinated infiltration and three-rank volleys to destroy the Blood Knife Pirates with no deaths. After the victory, he concluded that disciplined gunfire could let his troops defeat powerful pirates while minimizing casualties, and the fleet sailed home to claim bounties and commendations.

• Yang Yunzhi guided five darkened warships to the island, and Luo Ma and Drake led teams ashore to infiltrate the pirate camp and block escape routes.
• Luo Ma’s soldiers silently killed guards aboard the pirate ship while Drake’s men eliminated pirates in the southern woods.
• Henry sensed danger and burst from his quarters, but Luo Niu ordered the troops to fire in coordinated volleys as Henry and Good tried to rally the camp.
• The gunfire overwhelmed the pirates, killing Henry and Good and ending the battle with zero deaths and eleven lightly wounded soldiers.
• Yang Yunzhi inspected the battlefield, discussed the effectiveness of firearms with Hina, and planned to use the tactics to advance while reducing casualties.
• Yang Yunzhi ordered commendations and extra meat for the soldiers, and the Navy fleet sailed away in the morning.

Brannew brought Marine Headquarters a report on Base 36’s victory over the Blood Knife Pirates, highlighting Yang Yunzhi’s Three-Stage Shooting tactic and zero deaths. After Tsuru tested the tactic with Garp and Sengoku, Headquarters rewarded Hina and Yang while allowing him to continue his work in West Blue.

• Brannew read Base 36’s five-page report and hurried to show Ranzō its zero casualties and proposed reforms.
• Ranzō and Brannew presented the report to Tsuru, who summoned thirty marksmen, Garp, and Sengoku to test Three-Stage Shooting.
• Tsuru’s marksmen used continuous volleys to pressure Garp, who judged the tactic lethal to many opponents and effective at suppressing stronger fighters.
• Sengoku and Tsuru agreed to promote Hina to Lieutenant Colonel and Yang Yunzhi to Captain, provide supplies, and issue a general commendation for tactical innovation.
• Tsuru told Sengoku that Yang Yunzhi wanted to advance from the grassroots, so Headquarters let him continue his work in West Blue.

During the victory banquet, Yang Yunzhi learned that he had been promoted to Captain and tested the new abilities and rewards that came with his rank. He used his promotion draw to obtain Zephyr, a powerful accessory, then returned to the celebration.

• Yang Yunzhi received the system notification that he had been promoted to Captain, raising his Dao Power to 640 and granting Intermediate Martial Arts, expanded system features, and a promotion draw.
• Yang Yunzhi tested his improved martial arts, Portable Space, and map, discovering that the map could mark territories by faction and help detect intruders.
• Yang Yunzhi tested Justice Value draws and found that small draws yielded items roughly matching ten thousand Beli per point, so he decided to save points for a larger draw.
• Yang Yunzhi used his promotion draw and obtained Zephyr, a feather-shaped accessory that boosted his speed, attack power, recovery, and resistance to control effects.
• Yang Yunzhi tried Zephyr’s effects on the training ground, then returned to the lively victory banquet.

Yang Yunzhi discovered that Spell Power enhanced his attributes and system abilities while Armor strengthened his defense, both scaling with souls collected by Hell's Curse. He planned to build hospitals as a way to help people while potentially accumulating souls, and the chapter left him preparing to contact Bezos about taking Ghost Mulberry Island.

• Yang Yunzhi tested his new martial arts and discovered that Spell Power and Armor had each reached 64.5 after the Blood Knife Pirates' deaths.
• Little Bean's measurements showed that Spell Power increased his physical and system-related attributes by about 6.5 per thousand, while Armor made his skin more resistant to cuts.
• Yang Yunzhi considered whether Hell's Curse could collect souls from deaths caused by his command and decided to investigate the battlefield later.
• Yang Yunzhi devised a chain hospital plan to improve medical care and potentially collect souls from natural deaths, while insisting that patients receive proper treatment.
• Yang Yunzhi went to bed planning to contact Bezos about Ghost Mulberry Island, which he had marked as the first phase of the Fallen Leaf Plan.